Merlin Pants, Help me!
by Naeriel
Summary: Hermione Granger takes a nap and when she awakens, things aren't exactly as she left them.


_**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. I write merely for entertainment purposes.**_

_**Summary:**__ Hermione Granger takes a nap and when she awakens, things aren't exactly as she left them._

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Merlin Pants, Help ME!

Chapter I

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Ronald's loud voice echoed inside her head as she made her way towards the room of requirements. How dare he?! How dare he humiliate her in front of everyone back at the common room? Furious tears welled up but she stubbornly refused to let them escape. She would not cry. Was he really that dense? Was he not aware that the words he spoke were vindictive and hurtful?

_Seriously, what do I even see in him?! _She thought angrily as the door of the room of requirements materialized in front of her, ready to take her in and hide her from the world.

Feeling completely exhausted, she took a good look at her surroundings, happy with the environment that the room provided for her. A true replica of her room back at home stood before her, making her instantly feeling better. Heaving a long sigh, she dragged herself towards her bed and lay down; facing her ceiling where magical stars sparkled back at her.

The bushy-brown haired girl closed her eyes and bit her lower lip, struggling with her emotions, blatantly refusing to cry. Her throat hurt and her eyes stung with unwanted tears.

"I hate you Ronald Weasely," she whispered softly as she closed her eyes and felt herself drifting away.

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Hermione Granger sat up abruptly.

Her eyes were wide open and she took deep long breaths feeling as though she had just run a bloody marathon. The sun was blinding her making it hard for her to see. Suddenly, a cold feeling ran up and down her spine and she quickly jumped to her feet, looking around in deep confusion. Where was she? This was clearly not the room of requirements.

Swallowing hard, she noticed she was out in the wild, which was impossible! She had to be dreaming. She stared, open-mouthed, at the scene around her. She was in the middle of field, the green grass seemed to mock her as it extended on and on for miles. Who on Merlin's beard would do this to her?!

She tried to focus and quickly looked down, glad to find her wand with her. Surely, there was some logic reason behind all this? She nodded quietly as to reassure herself. She needed to get going, staying here waiting for answers to fall from the sky would get her nowhere.

Her hand gripped her wand tightly. Even though the war was over, there was still death eaters wandering around and one could not be too careful. As she walked south, she wrecked her brain trying to come up with a list of possibilities. Perhaps as she slept, she touched some sort of portkey? Eyes widening, Hermione gasped. Surely, the bed was one? That was the only logic explanation she could come up with.

It didn't matter. She suddenly came to a halt and almost hit herself. She could just apparate!

"No no!" she cursed loudly when apparating didn't work. Now she looked around, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. Just where was she? If this was some kind of prank it was not funny at all! Heads would roll if she found the culprit behind this. Gritting her teeth, the young witch forced herself to keep going.

She had no idea how long she had been walking, but her legs were starting to ache. She took a deep breath and waved her wand, a relieved sigh escaped from her as the pain from her muscles was alleviated. She kept walking and finally spotted tall trees, the clear field finally giving way to some kind of forest. As Hermione walked between the trees, her eyes widened and her heart began racing as she spotted a small road made of dirt. Surely that would lead her to population!

Finding comfort in the thoughts of finding population, she ventured further with renewed strength. She walked faster, even though she felt that she was on the edge of exhaustion.

Hermione stopped at the end of the road, her brown eyes contemplating the sight before her. A village was right before her; there were small cottage-like houses that looked like they needed serious reparations, there was also several people mounted on horses and old-fashioned carriages going about their business. It was as if she was on the set of some movie but there weren't any cameras.

She walked slowly and carefully, approaching the houses with apprehension as she stared at the clothing the locals were wearing. Suddenly, an awful stench filled her nostrils making her gag and she realized she had just walked past horse feces.

Frowning, she crossed the road in a hurry, not noticing how everyone seemed to look at her in awe.

"Excuse me! Sir!" Hermione shouted as she approached the lonely man who looked somewhat mortified that she chose him to talk to out of everyone else standing by, "Can you please tell me what's the name of this place?!"

The man's eyes widened as though she had grown a second-head and he shook his head, looking somewhat embarrassed, and spouted some words that Hermione did not recognize. It was only then that the brown-haired young woman realized he was speaking a whole different language. Her heart skipped a beat and panic started to coarse through her veins.

Was she not in England anymore? How was this even possible?!

"Sir? Please, does none of you speak English?" she tried as she looked around, watching with a frown as the locals stepped backwards, trying to get as far away as possible from her. "Italiano? Español? Français?!"

When no one replied and slowly walked away from her, she felt angry, confused and frightened. Swallowing hard, she chastised herself. _Get yourself together_, she thought sternly. First she needed to find a place to spend the night at as it was getting dark. Once she found a place to stay she would definitely find a telephone. Then she could finally call home and understand what was going on.

Hermione finally noticed the constant staring and the whispering. It was getting on her nerves but she clenched her jaw and bit her tongue. Fighting with these people would get her nowhere. _Let them stare, _she thought bitterly as she kept walking through the strange looking-cobblestone. She noticed how the streets looked quite wide, probably to allow the horses and all the carriages. As she turned around the corner, she was surprised as she contemplated the market ahead.

People chatted animatedly while they finished closing up their stalls for the day. While the previous street smelled awfully, she could tell that other scents were more prominent here. The air smelled almost pleasantly, a mixture of cinnamon, pine and incense.

She walked through the crowd, feeling highly conscious of how different she looked from all the other women. She wrapped her cloak around her to cover the sight of her dark stockings as all the women here wore long dresses. She walked into what looked to be some sort of tavern which had a wooden bed sign above the door. She cringed at the smell of smoke and alcohol and tried to ignore it as best as she could.

She spotted an old man behind the counter who was cleaning some glasses with a dirty rug. She carefully and slowly made her way towards him, "Pardon, sir. Is there a room for the night?" she asked, frowning when the man simply stared at her. It seemed that he too failed to understand her.

"Sleep!" she added and clasped her hands together, leaning them against her right cheek and closed her eyes.

"A room?!" the man inquired, startling Hermione with his rough voice. "That'd be twenty silver coins lassie." He added, arching a brow at her, probably wondering if she understood him.

She frowned, "What?!" she raised her voice as it was incredibly noisy in the tavern with all the man chatting and laughing away, "I don't understand!"

"Twenty silver coins!" he repeated and placed the cup down, showing her both of his hands, his fingers lowering for a few seconds before he raised them yet again, "Twenty!"

"Oh!" moving her hands down to her pockets, Hermione placed down the coins and a few notes on top of the counter, "Room?" she asked, now repeating the word she figured room meant.

The man eyed the money strangely and took the notes into his hands, admiring them as though he had never seen such thing before. She bit the inside of her cheek and she knew that she shouldn't do it, that it was completely illegal and wrong but she had no choice. Opening her cloak slightly, she slowly brought her wand out, pointing it at the man; _"Confundo."_

The man shook his head as if to clear his head and looked back at her and gave her a wide smile, making her wince at his rotten yellow teeth, "Ah yes, a room." He said, taking the old metal key and handing it out to her, "Number two." He said showing her two fingers, "Do you understand lassie?"

"Yes, yes, number two." She said repeating his words and taking the key from his hand.

When she arrived to her room, she was appalled by the conditions it was found in. There was a single bed; a straw mattress on the floor. It had an incredibly short and torn blanket, some sort of coverlet and a plain pillow. No sheets.

"Brilliant…" she whispered as she looked around. There were candles, probably the only sort of illumination these people had in this horrible place.

She quickly deduced that she was not home anymore. That she had figured it out a long time ago. But the thought that now ran through her head filled her with trepidation. Just how on Merlin's beard did she travel back this far in time?

It was obvious by the way those people carried themselves; the clothing, the condition the streets were in and their rural-looking houses. There were also the horses and carriages and now her room. There was no sign of a telephone or anything that screamed modern-like.

A small sob escaped from her as she sat down on the straw mattress, hiding her face between her hands. What was she going to do now?! For the first time, Hermione felt helpless and immersed in the unknown. She tried to look out for the some rational thought that could explain her being here in the middle of only Merlin knows where but nothing would come to mind. She was drawing a blank. And Hermione Granger never drew blanks.

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Crouching down, his dark green robes touched the dirt of the forest ground. The large hood which was perfect to hide his features away from prying eyes, slipped backwards. Strands of dirty blonde-hair fell over his eyes as he inspected the dirt road. Slowly, he removed his wand from his cloak and tapped it twice on the ground. His lips moved but no words came out and then a smirk crept on his handsome face.

He was on the hunt and nothing was more exhilarating for him. He enjoyed being in pursuit, nothing made him feel more alive than the thrill of chasing his prey. Standing to his feet, he began walking, taking his sweet time. It seemed that his prey was confident that he was no longer following.

The man finally started to walk away, following the dirt road. His hands reached for his hood and once again, his features were concealed.

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The tavern was loud as usual and muggles drank to their heart content forgetting about their pathetic useless lives if just for a moment. They sat in groups, talking, drinking and eating like savages. They obviously never heard of baths nor were fans of washing their vulgar clothing.

The watching man winced as he spotted two large dogs come inside the tavern following their owner. He took another toke from his pipe and was ready to stand when he spotted _her_. She was clearly not from here. He remained in his seat, shielded from anyone's view and watched her intently. She was rather young and seemed to be completely unescorted. How interesting.

She was clean too. Her hair was shorter than it was usual for women nowadays and she was clearly not wearing a dress. She looked somewhat conscious of that fact too as she was holding her cloak around her as though her life depended on it.

He leaned forward in his seat, blinking as both the woman and the man behind the counter seemed to struggle to understand each other. A smirk crept on his features as he kept looking at her. She would be an interesting target. Suddenly, his eyes widened in recognition as he saw her hit the man with a spell.

She was a witch.

His day couldn't get any better.

A knock on the door startled the bushy-haired witch out of her panicking mode. She stood up and fixed her cloak. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door. Her eyes widened in horror and she gasped at the wand pointed at her face.

"Not a sound, do you understand?" the man threatened watching as she clumsily stepped backwards.

She looked at the man, fear dancing in her brown orbs. She didn't understand a word but she didn't have to. Whatever he was saying couldn't be anything good since he was pointing his wand at her. Surely, wizards from this time did not greet the others with wand pointing in a threatening fashion.

He stepped inside and made sure to close the door behind him. He then faced her with a frightening smile plastered on his face. She didn't know why but maybe her parent's paranoia of noticing people's dentition was getting to her and she couldn't help but stare at the man's yellow rotten teeth.

The man looked around probably noticing that she wasn't carrying any belongings with her. Was he looking for something? Swallowing hard, Hermione quickly pulled her wand out. She cast the stunning spell but was surprised with how quick he was to deflect it. She frowned as he didn't even open his mouth to cast a counter-spell.

"Protego!" the shield was raised and protected her from whatever spell he tried to hit her with. But she was caught off guard as the next spell shattered the shield completely sending her hard to the floor.

The man laughed and slowly approached her, his wand still pointed at her and then she was hit with a very familiar unforgivable curse. Her scream pierced the room as her entire body was in an excruciating pain, she trashed on the floor as though she was trying to escape from the pain but it was not relenting.

She couldn't hear anything but her own scream; she couldn't see anything either as her eyes welled up with tears, her vision blurry.

The pain suddenly subdued and a flash of green seemed to illuminate the room. She gasped for air and then watched in horror as the man's body fell next to hers lifeless. She slowly felt herself being lifted and her eyes met bright blue ones.

The hooded man looked down at her, "Are you alright, milady?" he asked her in concern.

She choked a sob and shook her head, "I d-don't understand." She whispered, tears now falling uncontrollably. "I don't understand!" she tried one more time, this time she was desperate and scared beyond limits. She wanted to go home.

"Shhh. You are safe now." He said even though they couldn't understand one another. Gently, he placed her down on the straw mattress and placed a hand on his chest, "Salazar." He told her slowly, hoping she'd understand that much.

He watched her as she blinked and slowly nodded, apprehension written all over her face.

"Hermione." She said just as slowly, placing her own hand on her chest. "Hermione Granger."

The man pulled his hood behind and flashed her a handsome smile. This man had just saved her life, surely he was trustworthy?

He nodded in understanding, "Salazar Slytherin."

Hermione's eyes widened and her surroundings suddenly closed in, swirling dangerously. A deep nausea took over her and then her eyes rolled back and she lost consciousness.

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**A/N: Please everyone lend me your thoughts! This is also going to be a long story :) I feel that Salazar Slytherin X Hermione is such an amazing pair with so many plot possibilities. It's just amazing. **

**Anyway, English is not my native language and I find myself struggling with grammar. If you are a beta reader or are good with grammar and fixing minor mistakes and are interested in being my sidekick with this story, please drop a PM.**

THANK YOU FOR READING!


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